Franz Biberkopf reminds me of Frank Norris's McTeague - a gentle giant of a man who is trying desperately to keep his passions under control. He has just been released from prison where he was sent for killing his wife in a drunken brawl. The short tram ride from the prison to his rooms is an eye-opener for Biberkopf, just a cacophony of noise, bustle, street scenes and to cap it all off, the fellow who was showing him around absconds with all his possessions. At the local bar he meets Cilly (Maria Bard) a prostitute connected with a street gang headed by Reinhold who has recruited Cilly to coax Biberkopf back to his criminal ways. He has vowed to go straight and now makes his living as a street vendor where his gift of the gab draws in the crowds.
His temper and brute force (which is why Reinhold wants him) is simmering just below the surface as witnessed by a pub brawl where he has been goaded and jeered at because of his lowly and clean skinned occupation, and also, like McTeague, his fascination with the pub's caged canary. There is also a realistic street fight in which Reinhold comes to the hapless pair's (Franz and Cilly) rescue. Franz is eternally grateful, he doesn't realise that the fight and rescue have been orchestrated by Cilly under Reinhold's orders. It is just a small thing for the dim witted Franz to be coaxed into the rogue's gang but during the first job it dawns on Franz that this is not a joy ride but a criminal activity, he panics and is thrown from the cab. He is then run over by an unsuspecting driver and wakes up in hospital minus an arm. I found the hospital and it's greenery fascinating.
Out of hospital he meets a new girl Mieze (Margarete Sclegal), a street singer, a decent girl who wants to keep Franz on the right road but Franz is despondent, he looks at his straight life and finds nothing is going for him, he yearns to return to crime. Heinrich George is just magnificent as slow witted Franz, turning into an embittered cripple who despairs of making an honest living. George was a proud member of the Communist Party who for some reason was coaxed into National Socialist sympathies. Initially classified as a "non desirable" actor because of his leftist leanings, he eventually became an actor of national importance in 1937.
After a while the well planned robberies yield results which enable he and Mieze to live a better life but Reinhold also has his eye on Mieze and when she resists his advances after being lured into the woods he rapes and kills her. Cilly, meanwhile, has been undergoing a transformation and befriends Mieze and tries to put her wise about Franz's so called "friends". Walking from the court, where a paid eye witness has fingered Reinhold and convinced the police the rogue deserves a long sentence (15 years), Cilly gives Franz a pep talk, convincing him that his gift of the gab will more than make up for his incapacities and help him along the right path.
"Berlin Alexanderplatz" came out in 1929 with a narrative style critics compared to James Joyce's "Ulysses". This 1931 film had a smooth translation, maybe because the original author, Alfred Doblin, worked on the screenplay adaptation.
His temper and brute force (which is why Reinhold wants him) is simmering just below the surface as witnessed by a pub brawl where he has been goaded and jeered at because of his lowly and clean skinned occupation, and also, like McTeague, his fascination with the pub's caged canary. There is also a realistic street fight in which Reinhold comes to the hapless pair's (Franz and Cilly) rescue. Franz is eternally grateful, he doesn't realise that the fight and rescue have been orchestrated by Cilly under Reinhold's orders. It is just a small thing for the dim witted Franz to be coaxed into the rogue's gang but during the first job it dawns on Franz that this is not a joy ride but a criminal activity, he panics and is thrown from the cab. He is then run over by an unsuspecting driver and wakes up in hospital minus an arm. I found the hospital and it's greenery fascinating.
Out of hospital he meets a new girl Mieze (Margarete Sclegal), a street singer, a decent girl who wants to keep Franz on the right road but Franz is despondent, he looks at his straight life and finds nothing is going for him, he yearns to return to crime. Heinrich George is just magnificent as slow witted Franz, turning into an embittered cripple who despairs of making an honest living. George was a proud member of the Communist Party who for some reason was coaxed into National Socialist sympathies. Initially classified as a "non desirable" actor because of his leftist leanings, he eventually became an actor of national importance in 1937.
After a while the well planned robberies yield results which enable he and Mieze to live a better life but Reinhold also has his eye on Mieze and when she resists his advances after being lured into the woods he rapes and kills her. Cilly, meanwhile, has been undergoing a transformation and befriends Mieze and tries to put her wise about Franz's so called "friends". Walking from the court, where a paid eye witness has fingered Reinhold and convinced the police the rogue deserves a long sentence (15 years), Cilly gives Franz a pep talk, convincing him that his gift of the gab will more than make up for his incapacities and help him along the right path.
"Berlin Alexanderplatz" came out in 1929 with a narrative style critics compared to James Joyce's "Ulysses". This 1931 film had a smooth translation, maybe because the original author, Alfred Doblin, worked on the screenplay adaptation.